The functionality originally separately found in personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), cellular telephones, paging devices, and wireless email devices are increasingly being integrated into a single enhanced electronic device (“EED”). Research In Motion Limited of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and PalmOne, Inc. of Milpitas, Calif. USA are two examples of manufacturers of such enhanced wireless electronic devices, and each offer a variety of products in this category.
Because of the myriad of complex functions that are offered in EEDs, it is important that users are presented with an ergonomically friendly user interface, to allow the user to navigate through various EED functions and access desired features. This can be particularly important where the EED is used for conducting telephone calls or other types of live communications. In the example of an incoming telephone call, a user may, for example, have to react quickly to caller-ID display information, in order to decide whether to answer the call before the call is automatically forwarded to a voicemail system. Accordingly, it is important that the user be able to easily ascertain the nature of the information about the incoming call to react appropriately. This need to react quickly is further compounded when there is an incoming “call-waiting” type call while a first call is being conducted. The user will want to assess whether to accept the second call while not unduly disrupting the flow of conversation in the first call. While efforts are made in existing EEDs to provide ergonomically friendly interfaces, it is noted that in many prior art EEDs radical changes occur to the information that is presented on the display during an incoming call. For example, a “home” screen is often presented when there is no incoming call. That home screen will present the user with a number of icons representing applications that can be accessed on the EED. If the user happens to be viewing such a screen when an incoming call occurs, the home screen is often completely replaced with a notice of the incoming call. Such radical changes can be jarring and/or bewildering to certain user, requiring them to process a completely new set of information while being under time constraints to choose how to react to the incoming call.